Strangers on a Train

Just before the curtain goes up on The Sunset Limited, Cormac McCarthys Novel in Dramatic Form, a man attempts to kill himself by leaping in front of a train. Hes saved by a stranger, and the pair hole up together to discuss, among other things, the first mans attempted suicide, the existence of God, and the meaning of life and human suffering.

The men are referred to only as Black and White, their respective skin colors. Black is an ex-con and a Christian; White is an atheist. In other words, McCarthys is an unsubtle allegory, but one that critics, when the play opened at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, seemed to like (despite concern that the piece jumped genres  was it a novel or a play?). Sunset is lately popular with smaller theater companies, although its been recently eclipsed by McCarthys novel The Road, which won a Pulitzer, and the film adaptation of his No Country for Old Men.